Reading and writing data is a common event in computing environments. A particular computing device may read data from an internal storage device or from an external data source coupled to the computing device. Similarly, the computing device may write data to the internal storage device or to an external data storage device. When the data read or data write operation is performed between two devices (e.g., a data source and a data destination), the procedure is relatively straightforward. However, when multiple devices attempt to read and/or write the same data at the same time, problems may occur. For example, if one user attempts to read data that is being deleted or modified by another user, the read operation may produce inaccurate data or the read operation may fail.
Similarly, if two or more users are attempting to modify or delete the same data at the same time, errors may occur. If one user deletes a particular data element while another user is attempting to modify the same data element, an error or corrupted data is likely to result. Additionally, modification of one data element may affect one or more other data elements. For example, deleting a parent data element in a data hierarchy may result in deletion of all child data elements.
One solution to these problems involves limiting the use of a data storage system to a single user at a time. Such a solution is undesirable because many users may be prevented from accessing the data storage system, even though the users are attempting to access different sets of data. This solution is particularly troublesome in web-based data storage systems that can be accessed by thousands of different users simultaneously.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that allow multiple users to access data in a data storage system but prevents users from performing operations that might jeopardize the integrity of the data set or the integrity of the data processed by the operation.